Man accused in Oxford rape will continue to be monitored after trial delayed

A man charged last fall with allegedly sexually assaulting a 21-year-old Miami University student will not go to trial this summer.

Brandon Levi Gilbert, 22, who lived in Oxford at the time of the incident, is charged with rape, attempted rape, two counts of kidnapping and felonious assault for the incident that occurred Sept. 29, 2018 in Oxford.

Gilbert was arrested within minutes of the incident. In February, Gilbert’s trial was set by Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Howard for July 22. He was scheduled to be back in court Wednesday for a final pretrial hearing, but at the request of the prosecution, the trial has been continued.

Butler County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Heile requested the continuance because a witness will be out of the country during the time of the scheduled trial. Howard granted the continuance and set a new trial date of Sept. 30.

Gilbert is free on bond. His attorney, Chris Pagan, recently asked the judge to modify the terms of Gilbert’s bond release to allow him to visit family in Richmond, Ind. Gilbert is currently resident of Eaton in Preble County, according to the motion.

Howard granted the motion with specifications stating Gilbert will remain on a GPS monitoring system, report to his pre-trial services officer weekly in Hamilton and be excluded from Oxford and Miami University.

“The defendant is free to travel to Richmond, Ind. to visit family,” Howard wrote in the ruling. “The defendant is free to travel to locations south of Interstate 70 and west of Interstate 75. If the defendant intends to travel north of Interstate 70 in Ohio or east of Interstate 75 in Ohio, he must notify his pre-trial services officer, or designee, beforehand.”

“Blood cur(d)ling screams” is how an Oxford police officer described what he heard just before seeing a Miami University student with only one shoe on run toward him early on the morning of Sept. 29.

“She was shaking and trembling with fear. I noticed that she was covered in dead grass and leaves from head to toe and her waist belt was undone,” Officer Mark Ledermeier wrote in a police report obtained by this news outlet.

The student told Ledermeier that a man had thrown her to the ground and had punched her so many times in her right ear that she was having trouble hearing out of it.

While being attacked, the woman said she saw the lights from Ledermeier’s police cruiser, which was stopped nearby as he wrote a ticket for a vehicle registration violation.

“She stated that the male held her down on the ground and told her to ‘shut up,’ likely because he witnessed my overhead lights as well. She stated that she fought back and punched the male several times as well to get him off her,” according to the police report.

During her screams and struggle, the man assaulting her fled on foot, the woman told police.

She later identified Gilbert, whom police stopped nearby on East Central Avenue, as her alleged attacker.